Tropic Eden Morroca Rock - My Favorite Dry Rock

trevorhiller · Sep 8, 2022

I started my tank off around 10 months ago with around 30 lbs of Marco Rock and 10 lbs. of real ocean live rock. I haven't had very much coralline algae growth in my tank despite stable parameters. I have a theory that UV sterilizers slow the process down but either way I'm getting sick of the stark white rock so I ordered 20 lbs of Tropic Eden Morroca Irregular Rock and 1 XL Cocoworm Tube f/ premium aquatics to get my tank looking a little more established. As far as I can tell, Premium Aquatics has an exclusive on this product.

I received 18.6 lbs (according to my scale) and they included a free small cocoworm tube in addition to the XL one I paid for it (presumably to make up the weight of the box).

I hadn't seen many reviews of this rock, but I am really impressed with it. I think it's going to look great in the tank and the textures and colors are very nice. Overall, I had very little breakage and Premium Aquatics must have used 200 feet of bubble wrap, plastic wrap and brown packing paper to make sure it arrived safely (seriously-it was packaged VERY WELL). Even the small part that broke off has decent coloration under the crack and doesn't stick out very much.

Before I put the rock into my scape and swap some of the Marco rock, I thought I would get some pictures with dimensions for anyone else considering this rock. All of these rocks are in the 2.5-5.3 lbs. range and they are all about 6-8 inches tall.

It's definitely expensive for non-live rock, but I think out of all the dry, dyed rock I've seen this stuff has the coolest texture and coloration. I will definitely order more in the future if ever get a bigger tank. Hope this helps any of you considering dry rock. I think this will make an excellent addition to a smaller order of live rock that can be difficult to come by these days.

Tropic Eden Morroca Rock 20 lbs Worth.jpg

SamsReef · Sep 8, 2022

I wrote reviews on tropic Eden Tonga branches…they were the best. Morocco is second best

Deal on Caribsea Life Rock And Caribsea Sand

I found the look of tropic Eden more “fake” look. But I have heard the sand is better but more expensive I am not sure if you are speaking from personal experience but I have both Tonga branches. caribsea and tropic Eden. Caribsea is three times heavier(for the same length of a branch) and...

www.reef2reef.com

They stopped making Tonga branches.

Sam

trevorhiller · Sep 9, 2022

SamsReef said:
I wrote reviews on tropic Eden Tonga branches…they were the best. Morocco is second best

Deal on Caribsea Life Rock And Caribsea Sand

I found the look of tropic Eden more “fake” look. But I have heard the sand is better but more expensive I am not sure if you are speaking from personal experience but I have both Tonga branches. caribsea and tropic Eden. Caribsea is three times heavier(for the same length of a branch) and...

www.reef2reef.com

They stopped making Tonga branches.

Sam

I wondered about the Tonga branches... They were what I originally wanted because a few months in I already had dissatisfaction with the Marco rock decision, but after waiting and waiting and never seeing them come back into stock, I caved and ordered these before my tank gets too far along.

I honestly think I prefer these now that they are in front of me, although I wouldn't have minded a mix of each type.

Do you know why the tonga branches were discontinued? I presume it has to do with difficulty shipping them as I have seen a lot of pictures of broken tonga branches. It seems like there would be a decent market for the tonga style rock though as you can't get real tonga branch anymore.

SamsReef · Sep 9, 2022

I had called premium aquatics and they did not know the reason behind it but did confirm that it’s not going to come any time soon. The Tonga from tropic Eden was light and porous unlike the rest of the band. I have some and I cherish them. Others have improved lately too. I picked up a large lots at RAP NY earlier this year. Here is a rock that I have created. Tonga helps with maximizing flow around the sps.

Sam

trevorhiller · Sep 9, 2022

I really like that Tonga rock, I'll definitely be scooping some up if I can find it. A few pieces would look really good stuck in my aquascape.

Someone has to have a black market connection for real tonga rock, no?

Big E · Sep 9, 2022

On your UV sterilizer and coraline..............that has been debunked many years ago.

A reefer had a UV sterilizer on a tank with not much else in there and the whole tank was coated with layers of coraline algae. Once a few specs of coraline attach they can spread like wildfire.

Really no different than regular algae..........UV can kill some spores but it doesn't strip algae from growing everywhere anyways.

I run a 25w Aqua Ultrav. on my 60g frag tank and have no problem growing coraline. On the other hand, urchins and asternia stars can decimate a tank of coraline so if you have them you aren't going to ever have a lot of it.

SamsReef · Sep 9, 2022

trevorhiller said:
Someone has to have a black market connection for real tonga rock, no?

Haha, those are all artificial rock mimicking Tonga branches

LeftyReefer · Sep 9, 2022

The Tropic Eden Morroca rock caves are really nice too.
I've replaced some of my carbisea/marco rocks and replaced them with some of the Tropic Eden morroca cave rocks.
Adding more caves and hiding places allowed me to add several more fish too. pricey but worth it.

mtraylor · Sep 9, 2022

Beautiful rock btw. I think it really looks nice. Top knotch looker. Personally I would not be upsetting the apple cart to remove 10 month old rock for new fresh dry rock. You have spent 10 months getting bacteria and biodiversity established in the rock you have. Maybe sponges etc. Now you want to move backwards for looks of dyed rock because you don't see enough coraline algae...

To each there own. Im not saying your right or wrong as i will follow along. But patients is the key in this hobby and will serve you better every now and then but sometimes you have to learn that. Been there done that. Lol. If you have a couple dots on the glass you are good to go. If you don't then I would have spent my money on an coraline ball or nest for like 15bucks and called it a day. You can go fancy and buy coraline in bottle too. Little more expensive. Or just get it from corals you buy.

I just reset my aquarium with dry rock. I'm week 3 in that. Rock got a little diatoms on it so it's no longer white. Just dropped a coraline nest in the fuge last night. Not sure it will take off but we shall see. So I know how you feel about loosing or wanting that coraline look back. I think the wait is part of the excitement and keeps you interested.

Not sure if you have FOWLR or coral tank. But if you are doing corals, I would be careful as to how much you replace at one time since you at are at that mark where your aquarium will now finally support evrything depending on how you initially established it.

Post pics fts of existing rock work and then your new one. I always like fts of new rock formations. That is always fun too

trevorhiller · Sep 9, 2022

mtraylor said:
Beautiful rock btw. I think it really looks nice. Top knotch looker. Personally I would not be upsetting the apple cart to remove 10 month old rock for new fresh dry rock. You have spent 10 months getting bacteria and biodiversity established in the rock you have. Maybe sponges etc. Now you want to move backwards for looks of dyed rock because you don't see enough coraline algae...

To each there own. Im not saying your right or wrong as i will follow along. But patients is the key in this hobby and will serve you better every now and then but sometimes you have to learn that. Been there done that. Lol. If you have a couple dots on the glass you are good to go. If you don't then I would have spent my money on an coraline ball or nest for like 15bucks and called it a day. You can go fancy and buy coraline in bottle too. Little more expensive. Or just get it from corals you buy.

I just reset my aquarium with dry rock. I'm week 3 in that. Rock got a little diatoms on it so it's no longer white. Just dropped a coraline nest in the fuge last night. Not sure it will take off but we shall see. So I know how you feel about loosing or wanting that coraline look back. I think the wait is part of the excitement and keeps you interested.

Not sure if you have FOWLR or coral tank. But if you are doing corals, I would be careful as to how much you replace at one time since you at are at that mark where your aquarium will now finally support evrything depending on how you initially established it.

Post pics fts of existing rock work and then your new one. I always like fts of new rock formations. That is always fun too

I totally get that but I’m not overly concerned as it’s a relatively small portion that I want to replace. (It’s the tallest structure in the very back).

My tank rock isn’t the same age because I upgraded about 6 months in to a larger tank. I added the tall rock bstructure to the back that’s 4 months old. It sticks out like a sore thumb and I’m not digging it. It just doesn’t fit in. Most of my 10 month old rock has calcareous algae coating it, but it is green with very few purple, pink or red spots.

I’ve tried the purple helix, pink helix, high mag, Kalkwasser from the beginning. Nothing. No specs on the glass, no specs in the sump, no specs on the plastic.

It literally only grows on the rock very sparingly despite having real ocean rock with thick mats of coralline encrusting them.

By comparison, the shape and color of the new Marco rock just looks terrible IMO….

trevorhiller · Sep 9, 2022

I didn’t take that video for this specifically, but you can kind of see what I mean. It looks better under the blue lights, but under my more daylight spectrum the difference is night and day. You can see it under my fish in this picture.

mtraylor · Sep 9, 2022

I checked out the video. I really like the setup. The fish do too. It allows for good flow and the hawk fish going into the whole was priceless. Looks natural to me.

I see what your saying about rock color. It looks like mine in display at moment. However the real reef rocks are full of coraline. Deep purple. It's just a mater of time for it to take off. You could actually scrape a bit from one of those Rick's and let it go throughout tank.

My frag tank took like a year and a half for it to start. I started it on dry rock. My first adventure with dry work. It was test bed for display. Now I'm introducing it quickly to sump on the display. I also seeded the dry rock for 4 months prior to introduction.

The one thing I noticed on frag tank was I had no nitltrates. Barely detectable. Once I cranked them up over 20ppm. The algae started to grow.

mtraylor · Sep 9, 2022

Can't wait to see new design

trevorhiller · Sep 9, 2022

mtraylor said:
I checked out the video. I really like the setup. The fish do too. It allows for good flow and the hawk fish going into the whole was priceless. Looks natural to me.

I see what your saying about rock color. It looks like mine in display at moment. However the real reef rocks are full of coraline. Deep purple. It's just a mater of time for it to take off. You could actually scrape a bit from one of those Rick's and let it go throughout tank.

My frag tank took like a year and a half for it to start. I started it on dry rock. My first adventure with dry work. It was test bed for display. Now I'm introducing it quickly to sump on the display. I also seeded the dry rock for 4 months prior to introduction.

The one thing I noticed on frag tank was I had no nitltrates. Barely detectable. Once I cranked them up over 20ppm. The algae started to grow.

I originally had a much more "designed" scape, but after having a battle w/hair algae I've come to appreciate a much more modular aquascape so I can pull out rocks if they need scrubbed or treated.

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know why I never considered the nitrate portion of it. While I've been dosing nitrates to keep them elevated because it took me so long to get successful fish, they've occasionally bottomed out. I'm wondering if that's been the missing component here-DUH!